Founder & Chairman of the Executive Committee The Bartech Group (Deceased) – Livonia, Michigan
In 1945, seventeen-year-old John W. Barfield, the son of an Alabama sharecropper, dropped out of high school to enlist in the Army, serving two years in Germany and France. Upon his discharge, he worked as a custodian for $1.75 per hour at the University of Michigan. Hard work and dedication eventually led him to form his own company, the Barfield Cleaning Company, headquartered in Ypsilanti, Michigan which was acquired by International Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1969. In 1974, Mr. Barfield incorporated Barfield Building Maintenance Company, which was acquired by Unified Building Maintenance Services, Inc. of Washington, D.C. in 1986. In 1977, he incorporated John Barfield & Associates (later renamed Bartech, Inc.), and a year later he founded Barfield Manufacturing Company, which was acquired by Mascotech Industries in 1991. Mr. Barfield is currently Chairman of the Executive Committee of The Bartech Group and employs more than 2,300 people. In 1985 Bartech was named “Company of the Year” by Black Enterprise magazine, and “Outstanding Enterprise of the Year” by the Michigan Department of Commerce, and given the “Award of Excellence” from EG & G Mound Applied Technologies in 1989 and 1990. In 1993 Chrysler Corporation awarded Bartech the “Gold Pentastar Award”. Mr. Barfield received the 1994 “Laureate Award” by the Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan Business Hall of Fame. The Company has achieved many quality awards, including receipt in 1995 of ISO 9002-94 Registration in recognition of its quality operating system as well as the prestigious Ford Motor Company’s Q1 Award in 1996. Mr. Barfield is co-chairman of the regional campaign of the United Negro College Fund. He currently serves on the board of Spaulding for Children, and on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army of Metropolitan Detroit. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Tree of Life Award, as well as The George Romney Award recognizing lifelong achievement in volunteerism.
